Letter to Paul Dewar, MP

Greetings Mr Dewar,

I am a constituent of yours who lost his job at Nortel in March 2009, after 12 years of service to that company. This was not long after their declaring bankruptcy, and as such I did not get a red cent from them. A friend of mine with 12 years of service got cut just prior to the bankruptcy, and he got a very nice $60,000 severance package.

But I'm not one to pine about missed opportunities, and I did not really dwell on this fact. I applied for EI and got some benefits before going back to work after 2 months of unemployment. In June of 2010 I lost my job again, and am once again on EI. And it is in dealing with them that I found out some unfortunate news.

About a month or maybe 2 now ago, I finally did get some money from Nortel - $2700. Wow, what a thrill. No big deal - I'll take it I guess. Then in talking to EI I find out that they may want to claw this back against my claim from 2009. OK, I guess that is the right process. Maybe. But I remained hopeful that they would have mercy on me. The other day I found out that other people in my situation are starting to get notices from EI clawing back their claims money from last year, so I expect that I'll get my notice any day now. Not fun.

Here I am unemployed once again since June, and trying my best to make ends meet. My wife works part time since she is mainly a stay-at-home mom. But we are making ends meet - just barely. And even though that $2700 from Nortel was a far cry from the $60,000 they owe me, it came at a good time and was very welcomed. Now I find out that EI is going to soon be contacting me to claw it back. Great.

So why am I writing to you about this? I am willing to accept that this is a fair process. And I suppose I should have written to you a while ago about what I'm about to say. I noticed a few months ago that the federal goverment is buying the old Nortel campus. In my opinion, a condition of that sale should be that the money goes first to pay back people like me, and only then goes to the big credit holders. Those big companies will not fail because they do not get their money from Nortel, but I tell you that many families like mine just may.

thanks,
- Name and Address